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Today's Opinions

It’s my firm belief that every camping or hiking trip will result in a strange or funny story.

I’ve had my share over the years, including, most infamously: “Johnny, don’t pee on that tree ... pee on that one over there!” and “Allright! Straightenerup!” The second was uttered after midnight at a camping trip to General Butler State Park on Derby weekend in 2008.

After months of winter with its snow and cold, bulky coats, frozen windshields, school closings and slippery roads, almost all of us are eagerly looking forward to spring. We anticipate the pleasures of the warm sun, breezes scented with the awakening earth, and the surprise of crocuses and daffodils pushing their way up overnight. But the thing that comes to my mind in spring is mud. I, too, love warm weather, spring flowers and sunshine, but I admit it is mud that I connect most to spring

In November 2009, our son, Noah, age 10, was diagnosed with a horrific type of childhood cancer. A tumor the size of a small cantaloupe was removed from his chest. Two weeks later he began a course of chemotherapy; every two weeks he checked into Kosair Children’s Hospital for five days for one treatment and then three days two weeks later. This schedule continued for six cycles. He then had one and one-half ribs removed and biopsied. We held our breaths until the pathology report came in-he was cancer free!

When it comes to education, few days in recent years could rival last Thursday, when the state learned in the morning that it is a “Race to the Top” finalist and the Kentucky House voted overwhelmingly that afternoon to begin raising the high school drop-out age from 16 to 18.

Why is our current health care system completely unable to control costs? For the same reason most Americans over-eat at buffets: when you don’t have to pay for each plate of food, you usually eat more. In recent decades, the percentage of health care spending paid “out of pocket” by patients has fallen substantially from 52 percent in 1965 to 15 percent in 2005.

My name is BreAuna Armstrong and I am an 8th grader at Eminence Middle School. Several months ago I began working on a Service Learning project for one of my classes. I decided to raise money for the Humane Society so I sat jars around town to collect donations.